So, I went into the Localization & Messaging Editor, created a new project and added a text value for testing.  The key for the text value is "ParentTitle".  I then generated teh xml files, and verified they are going to the correct location.  In my InitApplication I have the following:

SetActiveLanguage("FactorSoft", 1033)
MessageXmlPath = CtlCommonPath & "\Data"
MessageKeyType = Messaging.MessageKeyDataType.XML
MessageLocaleID = GetActiveLanguage("FactorSoft", UserName)

The necessary imports have been put in to make it more readable.  Since I only have one language set I shouldn't really need to do all of the Setting and Getting of ActiveLanguage, but I put it in there to make sure it is using the current LocaleID.  All of this executes fine, but when it goes to retrieve the text value of "ParentTitle" it says "The specified key [ParentTitle] was not found within the localization database."  Why is it looking in the database if I specified for it to look in the XML file?  What did I do wrong?