how to parse XML documents?

I have been experimenting with JXTA and, while the learning curve has 
been steep, I am quite impressed.

However, I am having trouble working with XML documents.  I have 
created a document structure using the LiteXMLDocument which represents 
the data I want my peers to communicate with each other.  However, I 
cannot figure out how to parse these documents back into into 
LiteXMLDocuments.  I have been poring over the documentation, and as 
far as I can tell, there is no facility for doing this.

I have explored using the javax.xml.parsers object which comes in the 
Java library, but there still seems no way to get an XML document back 
into a LiteXMLDocument.

So, to be clear, my question is:
Is there an existing way to parse an XML document and use it to 
populate a LiteXMLDocument (or a DOMXMLDocument)?

Am I missing something obvious?  Or is this by design?

Aside: I realize that it would be possible for me to construct my data 
structure using JXTA Message objects.  However, since the data has a 
life of its own outside of the JXTA context, I would like to keep the 
data encapsulated in a single format for its whole lifetime.

Please help!  Thanks.

  -john.