reading properties file in action class

[Ashish Kulkarni]

Hi
I have abc.properties and abc_fr.properties file,
if i have to print values from properties file in jsp i use tag
<bean:message key="PL1143.datecompare"/> and it will print value depending
on locale,
But what i want to get those values in action class, is there an direct
method to do so,
Like some thing getText("PL1143.datecompare")
i can read load properties file using servletContext, but i want to avoid
that.
is there any method in struts action for helping in doing so