Orationes

Deus qui universum mundum beati Pauli Apostoli praedicatione docuisti; da nobis, quaesumus,
[old] ut qui eius hodie Conversionem colimus, per eius ad te exempla gradiamur.
[new] ut cuius conversionem hodie celebramus, per eius ad te exempla gradientes, tuae simus mundo testes veritatis.

"O God, who taught the whole world by the preaching of the Blessed Apostle Paul; grant us, we ask,
[old] that we who today revere his Conversion, may advance towards you by his example.
[new] that, advancing towards you by the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today, we may be witnesses of your truth to the world."

Remarks:
*The two versions of this prayer give us quite an insight into the process whereby the liturgy was "updated".
* The classsical oration is based on a simple contrast between the teaching of St Paul and the example of his life; we have received the former, may we imitate the latter. The bridge between the two is his Conversion, itself a moment of both intellectual and moral enlightenment. It is implied that the veneration of Paul's conversion will lead to our own.
* The revised prayer is overloaded by comparison.
* What God is asked to grant is now not that we should advance towards him, but that we should be his witnesses to the world. Advancing towards God is subordinated to witnessing to the world.
* The world thereby gets double attention; St Paul's preaching, and our witnessing to the truth. I can't help feeling that this takes from the force of the statement that God has already taught the whole world.
* Is the introduction of the notion of witness = martyr not out of place? We are commemorating the Conversion of St Paul, not his martyrdom. Surely the correct emphasis is on personal conversion, as in the classical oration?
* I find the "ut cuius...per eius" less elegant than "ut qui eius... per eius".